Transport authorities launched a full-fledged investigation Sunday into the derailment of a bullet train on the Akita Shinkansen Line in Daisen, Akita Prefecture, on Saturday afternoon.
It's a dangerous, unpredictable world. Twice in January Chinese warships in the East China Sea challenged Japan's Maritime Self Defense Forces patrols in a manner deemed threatening. And on Feb. 12 came North Korea's nuclear test.
Here's an open secret: Japanese men have a bad international reputation on the romance front.
SELLING WOMEN: Prostitution, Markets and the Household in Early Modern Japan, by Amy Stanley. University of California Press, 2012, 282 pp., $49.95 (hardcover) In the vast cultural landscape, Japan fascinates the mainstream with manga and anime, the martial arts, Zen and kimono. Of course, ...
Kenta Maeda shook off worries about his form with five shutout innings as Japan beat China 5-2 in first-round Pool A of the World Baseball Classic on Sunday at Fukuoka Dome. Japan improved to 2-0 following a tough win over Brazil in Saturday evening’s ...
Reader Rodney in Vancouver recently e-mailed: “I’ve often found your articles informative and useful, but they tend to take a tone of complaint. Please tell us about some face-to-face, grassroots efforts that have helped make Japanese more considerate and respectful of those who are ...
Getting to know Japan is hard work: a complicated language, cultural esoterica, mixed messages about prudent paths to take. People who find their way around and assimilate deserve kudos and respect. And reward. The Japanese government should welcome them by granting Permanent Residency (“eijuken”). ...
Back in January, I was a panelist at Waseda University’s Global Institute for Asian Regional Integration, invited to give an “activist’s perspective” to an academic crowd. Academics are a tough audience. In a way, they’re the activist’s antithesis. Researchers must offer “dispassionate” analysis — ...
You’ve probably heard about July’s G8 Summit in Toyako, in my home prefecture of Hokkaido. In case you’re unfamiliar with the event, here’s a primer from the Foreign Affairs Ministry: “The Group of Eight (G8) Summit is an annual meeting attended by . . ...
A friend sent me a Yomiuri article (Feb. 10) about a neighborhood forum in Kanazawa. Its title: “Citizens consider how to live together with foreigners.” I’m pleased this event was deemed worth a write-up. After all, I’ve witnessed plenty of forums over the years ...
Causes are what activists take up as a matter of course. But in Japan, just doing that is a challenge, given the general aversion towards activism here. I’ve been called an “akuchibisuto” for many years. At first I was leery of the label because ...
We all notice it eventually: how nice individual Japanese people are, yet how cold — even discriminatory — officialdom is toward non-Japanese (NJ). This dichotomy is often passed off as something “cultural” (a category people tend to assign anything they can’t understand), but recent ...
In the good old days, very few Japanese knew about Alien Registration Cards — you know, those wallet-size documents all non-Japanese residents must carry 24/7 or face arrest and incarceration. Back then, a “gaijin card” was only something you had to show a bored ...
On Aug. 25, the Japanese government released findings from a Cabinet poll conducted every four years. Called the “Public Survey on the Defense of Human Rights” ( www8.cao.go.jp/survey/h19/h19-jinken ), it sparked media attention with some apparently good news. When respondents were asked, “Should foreigners ...
The Japan Sumo Association has recently tag-teamed with the Japanese media to lay into Asashoryu, the Mongolian sumo champ who has all but dominated the sport for the past few years. As the sole yokozuna (grand champion) for a nearly four-year period, Asashoryu’s stellar ...
